


Soulmates

by empressempoleon



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Red String of Fate, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-12
Updated: 2015-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-04 01:06:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4120735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empressempoleon/pseuds/empressempoleon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of course fate wouldn’t set him and his childhood friend together, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soulmates

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this for 30 days of rin on tumblr back in january and decided today that i should cross-post it on ao3.

He wakes up with a red thread tied to his ring finger.  
  
He sits up abruptly, bumping his head on the upper bunk. Luckily Sosuke doesn’t wake up, so he stares at the string, his heart beating loudly in his ears.  
  
It’s here. It’s finally his time.  
  
Quickly, he slips out of bed and pulls on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie, tying his hair up with trembling fingers. As he ties his sneakers, Sosuke sleepily calls out to him.  
  
“Out for a jog?”  
  
“Tell Sensei I’ll be late,” Rin says as he heads out the door. “My thread’s come.”  
  
“What?”  
  
The door slams shut and he sighs.

* * *

Rin is a late bloomer. His mother was, his father was, and his sister still hasn’t gotten her thread.  
  
His feet pound the pavement and his mouth breaks into a wide grin. There’s so much adrenaline pumping through his veins he can’t breathe.  
  
Carefully yet quickly, Rin follows the path of the thin red string. It goes across streets and through alleys; he is traversing the city, running past the harbor waters and up hills.  
  
His soul mate is at the end of this fragile thread.  
  
The wind whips by him and he inhales the sharp morning air.  
  
Who would it be? Who would be the one to be with him for the rest of his days? Who would be the one to hold his hand, make him laugh, and kiss him softly?  
  
He can feel the length decreasing. With a last burst of speed, he takes a last turn and-  
  
Bumps into someone.  
  
“Damn!” Rin whispers, because their heads had clashed and now it hurt like hell. But he has no time to waste on this because he has to find out who his soulmate is-  
  
“Rin?”  
  
He stops and does a double-take; of course the person he bumps into is Haru, of all people. Now that he has stopped, he can see he’s run all the way to Haru’s neighborhood.  
  
“Morning,” Rin says curtly. “I’m in a rush, I just got my thread-”  
  
“So did I,” Haru interjects, and Rin blinks.  
  
“I thought you already got yours,” he says slowly, and for some reason he feels this weird feeling churning in his chest, something unsettling and something that kind of tells him he’s fucked.  
  
Slowly he looks down at his ring finger, hoping that he’s just being paranoid and this is just a sick coincidence and of course fate wouldn’t set him up with his childhood friend of the same gender.  
  
The crimson string is lying in a pool at his feet and connects right back up to Haru’s left ring finger.  
  
He stares. And stares and stares until Haru clears his throat and asks, “Shall we go?”  
  
Rin suddenly remembers to breathe, and a current of blood rushes to his face, so much that he feels like he will catch fire. “W-We- are-”  
  
Haru gazes at him with the same unfazed expression as usual and Rin wants to slap him. And he would have, if his hand wasn’t shaking and touching Haru didn’t seem like an indecent thing to do.  
  
“How?” he squeaks in a voice that shouldn’t be possible for an eighteen year old.  
  
Haru shrugs, before grabbing Rin’s hand and walking ahead. “We have to go to the registration office.”  
  
His fingers are cold. They are still slightly damp from his bath, and they slenderly wrap around Rin’s bigger hand.  
  
Rin splutters and pulls his hand away quickly. This isn’t right, after all. Haru is his best friend, he couldn’t be his soulmate.  
  
“This can’t be right, I mean how-” Rin rambles, and Haru turns around. He is standing on a lower step of the stairway down the hill, and as Rin looks down at his calm expression, he sees a tranquil lake to dive into.  
  
Haru’s eyes are a bright blue. Rin’s always loved the color; they are like little sapphires.  
  
And now those sapphires are his.  
  
He can’t stop blushing. He feels like such a girl, so vulnerable and dainty as Haru delicately takes his hand again and begins pulling him down the steps.  
  
Rin stops protesting, letting his hand relax in Haru’s hold. Their hands are so different, yet somehow they fit well together, the vermillion thread easily intertwining between their fingers.  
  
Rin buries his nose and mouth in the collar of his jacket, and watches Haru’s back as he leads. His pulsing muscles are moving rhythmically underneath his school shirt; somehow, he is more muscular than Rin remembered. His back almost seems...manly, in the way it leads Rin steadily down the stairs.  
  
Haru’s back. Rin scoffs. He’s always following it, isn’t he? Ever since he met him in elementary school, he’s been in an endless race chasing this dumb moron who didn’t even look back at him.  
  
He feels like crying for some reason now. This whole morning has been a train wreck and this soulmate stuff was a load of shit and he wishes he just stayed in bed.  
  
Rin quietly sniffles as his emotions take over him; dammit, he doesn't even know why he’s crying, he’s not a damn girl but for some reason the chilly morning wind is bittersweet.  
  
“Rin?” Rin’s head snaps up at the quiet call of his name. Haru is looking at him over his shoulder, his eyes wide; it’s the first emotion he’s showed all morning.  
  
Rin’s breath hitches in his throat. Those little sapphires are gleaming brighter than ever in the soft morning light, and for once, they’re looking straight at Rin.  
  
He is mesmerizing.  
  
And as this sudden, creepy thought graces Rin’s mind, his foot goes out a little too far and slips over the step below him.  
  
_He is mesmerizing_ , Rin thinks as Haru’s little sapphires grow even wider at the sight of his eighteen year old red-haired new-soul-mate tumbling through the air towards him.  
  
Rin feels it before he sees it; everything is whirling around and he is screaming and even Haru is screaming and he hears people slamming their doors and yelling and birds are screeching and Haru’s chest is warm and his arms are tangled somewhere weird and is Haru’s finger in his eye?  
  
It seems like an eternity before their crash and roll ends, and they land in an ungraceful heap at the bottom of the hill of stone steps leading up to Haru’s house. The stupid red thread is tangled all over them and Haru’s legs are near Rin’s head and Rin doesn’t even know which direction is up.  
  
But he feels warm in the cold morning, so that must be something.  
  
He can hear Haru’s soft, even breaths. So he didn’t die. Good.  
  
Rin chuckles, tilting his head to look at Haru. Haru looks at him, his expression back to the usual disinterested face, and Rin bursts into uncontrollable laughter.  
  
He rolls his eyes. Rin’s laughter melts away into tears, and now he is desperately trying to hold back tears that fall anyways.  
  
He feels a comforting squeeze on his hand; he tries to blink away his tears as he wraps his hand around Haru’s.  
  
They are two stupid eighteen year olds lying in the middle of the road holding hands in a tangled mass of crimson fate thread, one crying and one dreaming, staring at the bright morning sky.  
  
Soulmates are forever; Rin knows this and thinks that maybe, just maybe, if it is Haru, then it might work after all. 

**Author's Note:**

> rinharu just slays me tbh


End file.
